26 SEPTEMBER 2017

St Clair Decisions Olarte (full Report)

By Mike Sloan: Former super featherrweight titleholder Gairy St. Clair got himself back on the winning side with a dominant and well-deserved eight round unanimous decision down in Sydney, Australia. St. Clair used better footwork and a stiffer jab to control the pace almost instantaneously against Rey Anton Olarte inside the Hurtsville Entertainment Center and never looked back.

It wasn’t a walk in the park for St. Claire, who improved to 43-12-2 with 18 KOs, but he controlled the pace and was able to fend off many of the Filipino’s attacks. St. Clair raked hooks to the body and countered well, and never really found himself in any serious trouble throughout the bout. When it was all said and done, the three judges favored the Sutherland, New South Wales resident via tallies of 78-75, 78-76 and 79-74.

It was a crucial win for St. Clair, who had lost his previous two bouts entering the contest and five of his last six overall. A loss would have certainly spelled doom for the Aussie’s immediate future, but he was able to pull through and topple Olarte. For his efforts, Olarte fell to 16-22-8 with 4 KOs.

In the co-main event, light heavyweight Junior Talipeau was too much for Damien Smith to handle and stopped him in the third. Talipeau rocked his foe immediately in the round and swarmed him. Smith tried to recover but it was no use; Talipeau was all over him and landed several clean punches until the referee finally stepped in. The official time of the stoppage came at :20, allowing Talipeau to rise to 18-2-1 with 6 KOs. Smith dropped to 4-23-1 with 1 KO.

In other action, Julio Nuu (1-0) won a four round unanimous decision over Matt Cashmore (0-1) in a junior welterweight bout.